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I picked up this wonderful helmet yesterday at the post office and I could not ignore it so I had to start it. MS# #23, with the cold cast parts, I cut out the visor, sanded, filled and primed yesterday and today I wet sanded and Sprayed down some very nice silver paint. I have most of the paints to start the but the rest of them are on the slow boat to Alaska. I am using Rouge Studios tutorial and paint list.

I really like this color silver (Krylon Silver metal) it has a great finish, but will need a good clear coat on it as well.

On the sanding I started with 150 grit to start, then I did the hot water & soap wash followed by a little bit more 150 and then finished with 220. Krylon Black (wetsandable) primer, then i wet sanded it with a medium grit sponge (3m) pad followed by the fine grit. After drying, I touched up the spots I missed with 220 and then I did a final pass of 400 grit, rubbed it down with a tack cloth and sprayed away.

The paint is Krylon Premium Silver Foil Metallic, SKU 1060. It comes in a tall skinny can and the nozle in stead of just a regular spay patters comes out in a flat horizontal patern that makes it real easy to get a good coat on with. I did a few passes to get it down and then built it up a bit.

Now the bad news, the paint is touchy and can rub off with yoru fingers (great for weathering) and requries a clear coat. I was about to try the Kylon Accrilic clear coat and the two paints reacted badly on my test strip so I have to find a better clear/gloss coat.

On the good side the Panzer Olive Green sticks well and does work as does the liquid mask.

Crap! The paint is a lauquer based paint and it does not like the clear coats. I spoke with Krylon and hte only clear coat I can throw on it is the Low odor clear coat, but when I tried that it realy dulls the paint and gets a little milky (possibly a paint cure problem too).

I am going to wait a week before touching it again and I will see what happens, plus I have to head back to work for a week anyway and won't be home.

If anyone knows of a clear coat that works well with laquer's please let me know!

One danger in some crome paints from cans... if they havnt cured completely they can still be "soft" meaning you can easily dent the paint or leave fingerprint impressions on your helmet. Its always good to do light coats and let each coat dry completely so that this wont happen.

Just for example, I airbrused the silver on my stuff, I just took 3 days to paint the silver on my armor peices... this is becase I wanted to do light coats and let them sit for 24 hours each... now I can handle the armor, and draw on it with out leaving marks, or indentions in it, goes the same with helmets.

ah lacquer, you gotta hate it as much as you love it.
Just remember that stuff is air drying, basially drys like mud. so when you throw down the clear the top of the silver is gonna do the same as spraying water on some dried mud, the clear also wont dry nice and shiny like an enamal, you will have to buff it out, on a better note though is that there isnt any other paint that will shine up like lacquer, you just have to buff it.
as far as curing, it shoulf be fully cured in a few days if you have some air flow around it, enamal on the other hand literally takes months to fully cure.

with a good clear on there you shouldnt have the peeling silver problem when tape is removed

One danger in some crome paints from cans... if they havnt cured completely they can still be "soft" meaning you can easily dent the paint or leave fingerprint impressions on your helmet. Its always good to do light coats and let each coat dry completely so that this wont happen.

Just for example, I airbrused the silver on my stuff, I just took 3 days to paint the silver on my armor peices... this is becase I wanted to do light coats and let them sit for 24 hours each... now I can handle the armor, and draw on it with out leaving marks, or indentions in it, goes the same with helmets.

I know that is so annoying...... After I chromed my helmet 5 days later I put a huge thumbprint in it still, I wasnt very happy but I realized it was Laquer based, and I redid it in Enamel and it didnt do that. I dont know why Laquer did not dry on that sandable primer.

I know that is so annoying...... After I chromed my helmet 5 days later I put a huge thumbprint in it still, I wasnt very happy but I realized it was Laquer based, and I redid it in Enamel and it didnt do that. I dont know why Laquer did not dry on that sandable primer.

It happens, I find just light coats with the laquer dose the trick... and I mean light... its good to do that will all the paints becase they have to breath to cure correctly. You throw on a heavy coat and you end up with something that will take a year to dry... and that seems to go with anything.

Well this entire project has gone to *****. It turns out I have no idea what the hell I am doing with liquid mask and should be slaped if I ever pick up a bottle of that stuff again.

I masked out my scratches and cheeks to spray on the Panzer green, appleyd the paint and it went great but that is were it stops. Either I did not put it one thick enough or I suck at it (or both) but it would not come off so I had to scratch/shave it off. In prosses of doing that I jacked the nice silver base it had and going down to the primer or deeper and when the mask did peel off it took off way more paint than it should. I spent half an hour with hot water and soap srubbing off the mask on teh lower part of the helmet leaving a silverish color behind.

I then laid down some tamaya masking tape to mask off the inner cheek fo rthe black/PPR green, that went great but when I pulled off the tape I pulled off half of the back and half of the Panzer green on the cheek and most of the silver finsh base.

I am ready to pulverize this helmet, smash every bottle of paint (not easy to get in alaska either) and get out of costuming altogether ( I had 3 clone prodject totaly fail today as well) and sell off what I have.

I always have to step back and remember that it won't be perfect the first time or the second time around. Fett's helmet is chaotic looking at first but once you've spent the time it begins to look more and more like it should. People can be their own worst critic so don't be so hard on yourself.

I've had plenty of trouble. Your masking woes are something I'm familiar with. The same thing happened to my upper cheeks when I masked them and removed the tape it pulled half the paint up. I went back and applied 3 coats of acrylic with the airbrush, allowed it to dry properly, and went back later to find that it worked out great. No paint pulling up.

If you were using a latex masking fluid like Windsor & Newton you could use a craft store eraser (a square faced rubber eraser) that you rub over the paint where the masking was and it will pull it up without tearing through the non-masked areas. Works like a charm. There are other brands of masking fluids around but that is the one I used based on Steve-the-Swede's tutorial.